Time Travel

" Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1: 17 NIV

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with time, and the idea of moving around in it. I can remember a very early conversation on a camping trip while looking at the night sky with my Father, who was an astronomer and physicist, about how the light from the stars we were seeing was actually thousands of years old in some cases, allowing us to actually look back in time. We had spent the day exploring ancient ruins at Bandelier National Monument, and what I really wanted to do was go back and meet the people who had lived in that place a few thousand years ago, a desire that has led to my life in archeology. But my interest in the more imaginative ways of time travel, through storytelling, books, and movies, has always remained strong.

A couple of days ago I had the great pleasure of indulging in this imaginative time travel when the girls and I went to see Mr. Peabody & Sherman. It was real time travel for me, having grown up with them on Rocky and Bullwinkle.  It was great fun to be part of a wild matinee crowd, sitting close to the screen, being immersed in the sight and sound of state-of-the-art animation and storytelling. But it was the conversation we had after the movie that really took me back- the where would you go, who would you want to meet, what would be the consequence of doing something to alter the past questions that I had had with my Father so long ago.

Then it really got interesting when we started talking about travel to the future.

We spent a little while thinking of things to see in the far future, but the conversation quickly turned to how we saw ourselves in our own futures, where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do, who we wanted to be. What became clear was that we all get to travel in time, and though we don’t know how long that journey will be, we get to where we are going by the steps we take along the way, the decisions that we make, and the opportunities that we are given. As I travel through time in this Lenten Season, I find myself thinking of the future with comfort and joy that the greatest opportunity we have is to accept the love we are given by God, and to hope that I can share it, just as it has been shared with me.

Heavenly Father, we give thanks for your grace through which we share your love,  for your creation where we can feel your wonder, and ask that you open our hearts and minds to these gifts so we will know your will, which is our guide and our salvation in this life and through timeless eternity.  Amen.

J. Northrip, Chair Communications Committee